Commentary on Isaiah 1:1, 10-20

The use of the term “vision” followed by an indication of seeing at the outset of a prophetic book might induce expectations of coming material worthy of crystal balls, trance-inducing smoke, or mystical decks of cards. For Isaiah, and the overwhelming majority of the Old Testament prophets, however, such items do not characterize prophetic writings.¹ Instead, to say that a biblical prophet sees something and has a vision essentially means that the prophet has eyes to see (and ears to hear) situations and happenings in the world around them.

Based, then, on what they see and hear and experience, biblical prophets engage in the Spirit-led discipline of speaking the word of the Lord into those circumstances. The prophets speak to the future, but in a manner that is firmly rooted in the goings-on of the present.² The specific mention of Judah and Jerusalem and the kings during whose reigns Isaiah was active further suggests that the coming words of Isaiah will be firmly rooted in the concreteness of the present.

Isaiah reveals what he sees in verses 2–9 of his first chapter.³ When looking at the people of Jerusalem and Judah, the prophet sees children who were reared by God, but who have rebelled against God. Though animals know their owner and their “master’s crib,” these children do not know their God. They do not understand. They are a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, who do evil, who have forsaken the Lord and despised the Holy One of Israel. As a result, they are completely estranged from God. Isaiah also sees cities that have been burned with fire, and aliens devouring the land, a land that has become desolate (verses 2–4, 7–8).

In these verses, Isaiah implies a connection between the observed actions and characteristics of the people and the desolation that has come upon the land at the hands of the Assyrian invasion under Sennacherib in 701 BCE. Isaiah emphasizes the need to consider the connection by presenting his observations in the form of a covenant lawsuit, indicated by the call for the heavens and earth to hear what is going to be presented regarding a rupture in the relationship. With the heavens and earth as witnesses, which party is at fault (guilty) for the desolation experienced by the land—God, or the people?

An overly generalized perception of God’s action in the Old Testament is one that emphasizes God’s acts of judgment, seeing them primarily as punitive and even vengeful.⁴ Indeed, in these verses, Isaiah will twice mention the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah—cities that were utterly destroyed by God with fire from heaven. However, Isaiah seems to present a nuanced view of God’s judgment.

Verse 5 poses rhetorical questions to the people, asking why they seek further beating and continue to rebel, while their head is already sick and their heart faint. Verse 6 continues to describe a battered and bruised people. Isaiah does not seem to view these circumstances, including Sennacherib’s invasion, exclusively as an external act of God. Instead, the behavior of the people outlined earlier has led them down a path that resulted in the current state of affairs.

In fact, if there is an external, path-altering act of God to be highlighted in all this, it comes in verse 9. It is the Lord of hosts⁵ who is responsible for the people not being entirely annihilated as were Sodom and Gomorrah. Indeed, although Sennacherib boasts in his annals of having King Hezekiah surrounded in Jerusalem like a bird in a cage, the Assyrian general did not take the city. In fact, what we know of the siege indicates that a certain degree of mystery surrounds why Sennacherib suddenly withdrew.⁶

As we move from verses 2–9 to those included in the lectionary, there is a shift in tone.⁷ From the previous indictment motif of a lawsuit, the following verses transition more to instruction⁸—a move also indicative of the purpose of God’s judgment. Just because the material is instructional, however, that doesn’t mean it will be easy to hear. After again likening the people and their rulers to Sodom and Gomorrah—this time with an emphasis on the iniquity of those destroyed cities—Isaiah launches into a brutal assessment of temple worship in Jerusalem. God has had it with the people’s worship. Offerings are futile, incense an abomination. God hates the appointed festivals, experiencing them only as a burden. Further, God will hide God’s eyes from these things and will not listen to prayers.

The reason these scathing words are not only further indictment, but also teaching, is that God here does not make a sweeping and wholesale condemnation of worship. Worship in and of itself is not bad. The problem is worship “with iniquity” (verse 13).⁹ Here, Isaiah teaches us something critical about worship. Worship is not just ritual. It is not going through motions for the sake of going through motions. Furthermore, worship is not to be viewed or experienced as exclusively, or even predominantly, transactional.

This is to say, worship is not something we do to appease an ill-tempered, vengeful God.¹⁰ Rather than being transactional, worship is to be transformative. It should influence who we are, what we do, and how we do it. Thus, after calling out the untransformative worship of the people, Isaiah lays out what should be the outgrowth of worship—not rebellion against God and iniquity and estrangement as described in verses 2–4, but instead, ceasing to do evil, learning to do good, seeking justice, rescuing the oppressed, defending the orphan, and pleading for the widow (verses 16–17).¹¹

Much as it turns out that transformation is key to understanding the purpose of worship, it is also essential to understand the dynamics of God’s judgment. Verse 9 already highlighted a saving act of God in the midst of Judah’s desolation. After the prior verses presented examples of transformation that should sprout from worship, verse 18 indicates God’s desire for such transformation to also be the outcome of indictment: “Come now, let us argue it out, says the LORD.”

In other words, God is inviting the people to be transformed—to work with God on the process of becoming new. It is not a free pass, no pixie dust or abracadabra—the people will have to be willing and obedient. But neither is this a scene of unmitigated fire and sulfur from heaven. The overarching thing that Isaiah sees in all this is a God who, true to God’s own self-description as merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love (Exodus 34:6), far prefers and desires to save the people from their sins rather than destroy them because of such behavior.

Notes

1. Ecstatic prophetic experiences are by no means absent from the Old Testament, the book of Ezekiel being the prime example. This mystical expression of the prophetic experience, however, represents more the exception than the rule.
2. Stated another way, the biblical prophets are far more “forthtellers” than they are foretellers.
3. Although not part of the appointed lection, the preacher (or teacher) should consider including these verses for a fuller exegesis of verses 10–20.
4. I recall a comic sketch from years ago that had God as the stereotypical bearded old man, sitting at a computer, finger poised and waiting to hit the “smite” button on the keyboard when the unsuspecting individual on the screen, who was walking down a sidewalk, passed under a piano being lowered by movers from a balcony above.
5. A militaristic image of God (literally “the Lord of armies”) reminiscent of the exodus, in which God fights for God’s people.
6. See also Isaiah 36–37 and 2 Kings 18–19
7. Gene M. Tucker, “The Book of Isaiah 1–39: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections,” in The New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. 6 (Nashville: Abingdon, 1994), 55.
8. For example: “Hear the word of the LORD. … Listen to the teaching of our God” (Isaiah 1:10).
9. This is the same thing the people were said to be laden with in verse 4. The prophet Amos made a similar assessment of worship (Amos 5:21–23).
10. This view often overtakes perceptions of Old Testament sacrificial worship. Studied closely, however, worship in the Old Testament is primarily a means of drawing God’s people closer to God and healing any rifts or wounds in the relationship. (Thus the apt understanding of atonement as “at-one-ment.”)
11. Amos makes a similar case for the connection between these things and worship (Amos 5:14–15, 24) as does Micah (6:6–8).